Quilting New Year's Resolutions for 2015???

[Dawn S.]

Lorna, oh yeah, I know those borders! I have some just like them here. A UFO at the moment :blush: but I still love it! Your center is beautiful!

Welcome, AnnieLu! And, you are so right about moving on from class projects. I even tossed one that was a UFO for years, and when I revisited it, all I could think was....."What WAS I thinking!" It was really ugly!

Terrie, what a fun quilt! Whimsical indeed! Did you do your FMQ on a domestic machine? That is a challenge right there, and you did it well, for your first time! I am able to do small FMQ okay, but the big sweeping motifs, like your hearts, are hard for me! You did good! Congrats!

Dawn

[Nancy R.]

Looks like a lot of work, but it sure is beautiful, Lorna! And I, too, recognize the borders.....

[Renata L.]

That is lovely, Lorna--so spring-like, and yes, I recognize the borders, even though I did not make that BOM... :cheer:

[Renata L.]

Yes I dyed the solid pieces, but not the grey. I used a cotton/silk blend. I really love the feel and it was very easy to turn the cathedral window portions back. The interesting thing about the dyeing was that one side was not always the same color as the other. In fact one piece came out a beautiful bronze on one side and the other side was a greenish red (don't know a better way to describe it). I love dyeing fabric and lately it's truly a passion. Everything from ice dyeing to shibori folded and into an indigo vat, I get a real thrill out of seeing things that I plan or when it is totally serendipitous!!
There are some pictures on my blog: Www.letscreatetoday.blogspot.com
I think the sample folder or bucket might just be the way to go. I could include a note as to what I have done, where I thought it was going, and why it's in the "what to do with these?" Bucket. As long as I don't need a fork lift to move it about,,,hmmmmm

[Renata L.]

Free motion quilting can be nerve wracking. After all, you've put so much time and heart into it and then along comes I thread nest or skipped stitches,or any other number of things! I just watched an older show where Ricky used water dissolveable thread and a printed pattern to get they "feel" of how you move around the design. Once your design is done with the. Wash away thread, you can do the actual stitching with the permanent thread of your choice, and if you go off the lines it's never going to show, once the quilt is washed. I'm going to try this method very soon.
If anyone else has tried this, I'd enjoy hearing about your experience.
Have a lovely day,
Luann

[wendy w.]

Eeek and if you really like the quilting you do first time it'll be gone for ever. Think I'll stick to paper and pencil first time but it is good for machine trapunto. I remember reading Jenny Lyon's blog where she made a special competition piece and had got her threads mixed up. I felt her pain as her quilting began to vanish. I do have some but not opened it yet.

Now I've thought it would be good to do your guidelines and you could make adjustments for your errors as you go over it with permanent thread. I wonder which show it was?

[wendy w.]

It was show #1210. Big Sky Country

[Nancy R.]

I've used the water-soluable thread for cut-away trapunto and it works very well for that. The only problem I had was on a white wholecloth being quilted with white thread. It was very difficult to tell which parts had final quilting and which just had the water soluable thread.

Ricky showed this method of marking on a couple of different shows. I don't plan on using this method myself unless I run across something that is really, really difficult to mark (and isn't white). It has just always stuck me as a very expensive way to do your marking. But it's a good idea and certainly something to keep in the back of my mind in case the need every comes along.

[brenda h.]

Here are some pictures of my daughter's purse and my SIL's quilt. Other pictures coming soon!

[brenda h.]

OK,for some reason the quilt pictures wouldn't load at all. I'm thinking the file sizes are too large, but even after I compressed one it wouldn't load. I will try later, I need to get back to work!

[wendy w.]

Brilliant bag, so colourful

[Judith A.]

Beautiful bag! Your daughter will love it.

Judith

[Nancy R.]

Love the bag, Brenda!

I think it was Geneva who found that some pictures won't upload if they have certain characters in their file names. I think she was having trouble with the single quote ('). Maybe make sure your file names consist of only letters and numbers and try again.

[Nancy R.]

Pretty bag Brenda.

[Lois B.]

Your daughter's purse is so, so cheerful. It will make her smile every time she uses it.